The present invention provides an effective lift arrangement for transferring a patient from ground level to a raised level, and allows for subsequent transfer to an appropriate support.
A number of different devices have been proposed, primarily for hospital or institutional-type settings, where a patient is transferred from a wheel chair to a bed or from a wheel chair to a bath. With these devices the patient is effectively lifted and suspended to affect transfer. Such lifting mechanisms assist the care provider in completing the transfer without manual lifting. In recent years there has been a desire to provide proper care for patients in their own home environment as opposed to an institutional setting. One of the difficult challenges for a care provider in the home environment is the lifting of the patient from ground level to an appropriate support such as a chair or bed. Many patients are not capable of lifting themselves to a suitable support structure safely, and the existing lifting-type mechanisms have not been optimized for home use.